Gingrich: Tackling child labor laws, leading GOP

The candidate’s latest gambit is denouncing child labor laws as “truly stupid” and saying students should take over janitors’ jobs, but Newt Gingrich has moved to the front of Republican presidential candidates in two new polls.

Ex-House Speaker Gingrich is the sixth GOP contender (or, in Donald Trump’s case, pretender) to lead in the past year.

A new CNN poll of Republicans puts Gingrich at 24 percent, triple the support he had a month ago. Businessman Herman Cain, beset with sexual harassment allegations, has fallen from 25 percent to 17 percent.

Romney

Ex-Gov. Mitt Romney comes in at 20 percent, a tick under his usual performance in the polls. Texas Gov. Rick Perry is at 11 percent. The poll of 1,019 voters was taken Nov. 18-21.

The results mirror those of a new Quinnipiac University poll. It pegs Gingrich at 26 percent, up from his previous 10 percent. Cain has fallen from 30 percent to 14 percent in Republicans’ preference. Romney is at 22 percent.

Gingrich has always sparked controversy, his lips at their loosest when he is riding high politically.

It has been no different this week. Gingrich started taking after child labor laws over the weekend. Under federal law, the minimum age for non-agricultural work is age 14.

Gingrich advocated letting school pupils take over maintenance of their schools. “Most of these schools ought to get rid of union janitors and pay local students to take care of the school,” he said. Gingrich would maintain a “master janitor” to supervise his youthful workers.

On Monday, Gingrich described child labor laws as “truly stupid,” but was not advocating that students become janitors. He said they should be limited to 20 hours of work a week.

Previous Gingrich controversies have centered on the candidate’s wealth: his $500,000 line of credit at Tiffany & Co., the $1.8 million in consulting fees he received from the troubled mortgage giant Freddy Mac; and a cruise through the Greek Isles with his third wife that caused senior campaign aides to abandon ship.